FOOL FOR LOVE
Previously on Buffy we are given the 30 second recap of Spike and Buffy's avowal to learn more about the previous Slayers in order to be a better Slayer herself. For the first time all season we aren't reminded that Dawn is The Key or well, anything. Pretty focused.
Currently on the show Buffy gets her butt kicked. Actually, and this must be really embarrassing, she gets staked with Mr. Pointy by some vampire who looks like he just wandered over from the Pet Cemetery video shoot. But, Riley arrives and chases him off and, when Buffy faints, he carries her home. Buffy doesn't want a real doctor to look after her because then her mom will find out and Buffy doesn't want her to worry. Riley volunteers to do patrol but Buffy insists that he take the Scoobies with him.
The reason being is to get Willow, Xander and Anya a little air time. Now, you have to really pay attention. Riley has about four scenes, Joyce has two, Dawn one, the Scoobies about three and Giles one. And that's it. Good thing they pull salary because it would be peanut butter for supper if it was by the word. We'll just deal with most of them right now. Riley and the gang patrol. Which consist of him skulking commando like around the headstones while they wander around after him munching on chips and wondering what a pumped fist means. They narrow it down to either "follow me" or "stay here". They find a nest of vampires, including the one who stabbed Buffy and decide to kill them in the morning when they're more killable. But Riley comes back, ashes the Ramone Reject, retrieves Mr. Pointy and introduces them to Mr. Incendiary Grenade. Needless to say Mr. Incendiary Grenade goes over with a bang.
Buffy hits the Magic Box to do some research into final Slayer battles, of which there is precious little information. As Giles points out the Slayer usually can't debrief after the final battle and the Watchers are usually pretty silent as well on the matter. Removing her foot from mouth Buffy realizes that they have a Slayer killer of their own
And here is the main story line for the episode. Buffy grabs Spikes and demands that he tells her how he managed to kill two Slayers in exchange for some cash. Spike raises it by a plate of extra spicy buffalo wings and the stipulation that he tells the story his way. Which he does, cutting from flash back to in the present explanation and narration.
Seems that in his youth, mortal youth that is, young William a sensitive dandy who is terribly in love with Cecily. So smitten is he that he writes really bad poetry which earns him his friends mockery and Cecily's scorn. Spurned he runs crying into the night, encounters Drucilla and is turned into a vampire. Immediately he's at odds with Angelus who finds Spike's lack of "finesse" and "artistry" annoying. Almost as annoying as the angry mobs who have been chasing them across England due to Spikes excesses. He warns Spike that if he's not careful he (Angelus) will kill him. Or a mob will get him. Or the Slayer.
Spike is obsessed, he hunts the world for the Slayer finally finding one right in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion. They have a pretty intense sword and fist fight with Spike finally winning. Spike, Dru, Darla and Angelus decide to leave China (which they do in slow motion with burning building behind them).
Buffy is rather upset that Spike got off on killing a Slayer, something he refers to as the best night of his life. They begin to tussle, starting off with pushes and mild punches. As they fight Spike recounts his killing his next Slayer in New York City in 1977. Both fights, past and present, are very similar and they cut between them and, when Spike finally tells Buffy how he can killed Slayers, it is the Billy Idol Spike of the past telling her.
The question, Spike says, is not how he beat the Slayer. The question is why the Slayer lost. And the reason those two Slayers lost and the reason that Buffy is going to loose is because they all have a death wish. Buffy's may be muted because of her connection to her family and friends -something that most Slayers forsake early on in their careers- but it's still there. And, Spike assures her, he'll be waiting for the day when it just gets to hard to live with the uncertainty of "is this the day I die" and wondering what's on the other side that everyone she kills sees but she doesn't. Because on that day Spike will be there and Buffy will die. He moves towards her, his entire body language screaming KISS but Buffy recoils, rejects him and tosses the money at him like he was a whore. He gathers the money but breaks down, stares at it and himself and then looks up, angry and suddenly confident again.
At the crypt he roots through his stuff until he finds a shotgun which he loads. Harmony tries to talk him out of it, reminding him about the chip and how much it's going to hurt if he points the gun at Buffy let alone pulls the trigger. And, she shouts after him as he heads off ala Young Guns, you were never able to kill her before he got the chip.
(This is an intro to the last flashback which would be between seasons two and three. It, quiet simply, defies description but you do finally get to see the slime demon that Dru left him for and I must say *someone* has way too much fun on the show...)
Buffy gets home and finds her mom packing. Seems she's heading to the hospital for a couple of days and a CAT scan. They both assure themselves that everything is going to be alright but Buffy heads out to the back porch where she sits down and begins to cry.
Spike, armed with shotgun and bravado arrive already to blow Buffy away. Until he sees her crying. She asks what he wants and he asks if there's anything wrong and if there is anything he can do to help. He then sits down, gives her a very awkward pat on the back and then they just sit there silently as we fade to black.
Random Quotes
Cecily: I do see you, that's the problem. You're nothing to me, William. You're beneath me.
Buffy: Say it's true, say I do want to. It wouldn't be you. It would never be you. You're beneath me.
Buffy: Why don't the Watcher's keep fuller accounts of it? The
journals just stop.
Giles: Well, I suppose if they're anything like me they just find the
whole subject too...
Buffy: ...unseemly? Damn. Love ya but you Watchers are such
prigs sometimes.
Giles: Painful, I was going to say.
Spike: Ow! Wait, not ow. Are you feeling alright, Slayer? This stuff usually hurts.
My heart expands, it's grown a bulge in it.
Inspired by your beauty effulgent.
--William the
Bloody Awful Poet, circa 1880
Spike: I've had some sweet ones. What are you
looking at?
Buffy: You got off on it.
Spike: Well, yeah. I suppose you're telling me you don't?
Buffy: You think we're dancing?
Spike: That's all we've ever done.
Buffy: What do you want?
Spike: What's wrong?
Buffy: I don't want to talk about it.
Spike: Is... is there something I can do?
Random Notes:
Written by Doug Petrie (Bad Girls, Enemies, The Initiative, This Year's Girl, The Yoko Factor and this season's Out of My Mind) and directed Nick Marck (Something Blue). So basically we have a writer's who's forte is the hidden message (Faith is bad pretending to be good, the Initiative is bad pretending to be noble, things aren't what they seem) and a director who does comedy well. Works for me.
Right, if Buffy has a death wish (and I'm not saying she doesn't) then what does Spike have? Annihilation desire. The man cannot stop from hanging around the one person most equipped to kill him.
Gosh, who'd thought I could get double the mileage (and why isn't kilometerage a word) out of this quote from Dopplegangland? Buffy: "Willow, just remember, a vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person it was." / Angel: "Well, actually... That's a good point." While the demon takes over the person when they become a vampire, something from the core apparently remains. Therefore that little kernel of William, the poet and fop, remains. Which is why, really, Spike can't kill Buffy on the porch.
The ending scene is largely silent, four lines in the entire shot. So, like most of my favourite Buffy scenes it isn't what is actually said but rather how they compensate for not talking (and yes, this is a blatant plug for Hush... go dig out the video and watch it again.) So, what makes the scene for me is Spike cocking his head to regard Buffy just as William use to to regard Cecily. Buffy tensing as Spike tries to comfort her- torn between needing comfort and not wanting to accept it from someone she thinks she hates. The two of them, sitting in the darkness and sighing in unison.
Yes, "thinks she hates". The Buffy and Spike relationship is fairly complex and both are in serious denial. More about their feelings for themselves rather than their feelings for each other.
I *think* they could have made Spike look more like Brad Pitt in the China scenes but it would have been hard.
I'm allowed to quote but not attribute... "Buffy was good tonight but last week was better." And I have to agree. Family has been the highlight of the season but this one was still a solid show.
Angel Notes:
This is being touted as a two parter but it really isn't. Angelus, Dru, Spike and Darla from 1880 to 1900 are in really only guest starring in flashbacks. The same flashbacks mostly.
Darla and Anya are basically going through the same thing, immortality stolen by mortality. Anya is able to handle it because she can turn to fellow mortal Xander. Darla can't as her only lifeline is still immortal. Tales of the Body Thief though, with Lestat begging Louis to turn him.
Okay, there is no reason to watch Angel this week. All the good eunuch jokes were last week.